So what if the appraisals were fraudulent!

Jim Cramer of CNBC joins Republican Senator John Sununu of New Hamphire in wondering about the timing of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's probe into appraisal fraud by major mortgage lenders.

The historians are going to have a field day when writing about this era - unlike the aftermath of prior speculative bubbles, this one is on YouTube and in blogs.

Hopefully, the passage of time, along with some major (and probably painful) adjustments to what Ron Paul calls our "subprime economic system", will result in clearer heads prevailing someday - both on television and in Congress.

For those who missed it, here are Senator Sununu's comments from today's Joint Economic Committee group therapy session with Fed chief Ben Bernanke:

Yesterday, the Dow dropped 360 points and a number of analysts in the financial press blamed a lot of that drop on the New York Attorney General and his press release that alleged, in his words, "systemic fraud and a pattern of collusion in the mortgage industry" and he made those allegations with specific reference to transactions between Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Washington Mutual for which he issued subpoenas. My question to you is, in this environment, where we see big problems with credit in the mortgage industry, is this kind of a press release really helpful in solving the problems in front of us?

Ben Bernanke didn't really offer up an answer - perhaps some help can be provided here.

No, Senator, we should handle this sort of thing quietly so that consumer confidence is not impaired because consumer spending is 70 percent of the U.S. economy and Christmas shopping season is just around the corner.

Clearly, the New York attorney general is not only trying to destroy the American economy and the American way of life - he's out to get Christmas too!